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a little sluggish until i fugured out the problem

Lawdog

Member III
a little sluggish until i figured out the problem

I have an Ericson 38 that I keep moored most of the time, and use the launch service to get to my boat. I do like to club race regularly and was running behind when I went to my boat for the last race of the season. Usually the first thing I do is start the engine, check and drain the bilge, drop the mooring and put the sails up as I head to the start line. Because I was so late to the boat on this afternoon, I simply started the engine and headed to the start line. My boat was not responding well, and was really slow and sluggish both to steering and to moving. Because I was also short on crew, no one went down below from the start to the first leg. We were way behind when we hit the mark and started downwind, so I sent my crew below for some beers, and then heard her ask: "why was water sloshing over the floorboards?!" I immediately panicked as any good captain would, scrambled below and hit the bilge pump. We also started on the whale gusher. I then started guzzling my beer and planning my next action. I started checking all the through-hulls, starting from the stern, but could not find any leaks. This was puzzling to say the least. I started the engine just in case, and the water, after some 20 minutes, was finally down. My 38 does not have an auto switch for my bilge pump, but will next season. When I got back to my mooring, I had another beer or two and was still trying to figure out why I had so much water below, and casually opened the anchor locker, and to my surprise, it was full of water. I then remembered that I had cut an access hole just below the forward end of the anchor locker the year before to allow me access to fix the bow light and bow rail. It was about 3 inches high by 5 inches wide to allow me to get my hand and forearm under the deck, and I simply never got around to repairing it. WOW! The nor'easter we had that lasted a few days up here in Maine apparently had splashed water over the foredeck,and filled the anchor locker until it sent the water below. I found the drain hole blocked with sand and paint chips which allowed the problem to exist. Small things can lead to big problems on a boat. I will regularly check the anchor locker from now on, and install a waterproof access hatch.
 
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Andrew Means

Member III
Phew! Good thing everything worked out well!

I've had that same panicky moment myself: We had only owned the boat for a short time when were sailing in Lake Washington with probably 12 people and were really heeled over. A girl went belowdecks to go to the bathroom and came back up with a concerned look on her face. "There's some water down there." "How much?" "... like, a lot." I bolted down the stairs and sure enough there was about 3 inches of water sloshing around on the starbord side of the cabin sole. I figured maybe somebody had gotten the disused through-hull valve open in the bathroom and panicked, but it was closed up tight. Then I remembered the old exhaust port on the transom—normally over a foot out of the water—for the long since removed Atomic 4. Surely it couldn't be submerged... Sure enough it was just below the surface. I tacked immediately and had somebody hop on the bilge pump (we only have a manual pump) and made some of the folks move forward to redistribute the weight while I cursed myself for leaving a hole in the boat un-plugged. Everything worked out fine, but for a moment I was calculating the amount of time it would take to get to shore and if I would have to beach her.
 
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